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Monday, August 3, 2015

Page 69: Love Letters and Other Passages of Darkness

The Page 69 Test is not mine. It has been around since 2007, asking authors to compare page 69 against the meat of the actual story it is a part of. I loved the whole idea of it and so I'm stealing it specifically to showcase small press titles - novels, novellas, short story collections, the works! So until the founder of The Page 69 Test calls a cease and desist, let's do this thing....

Page 69 comes near the end of the story "The House of
Flana." Richie, while visiting his Aunt Helen, goes to the abandoned
house of a former school friend who moved away quite abruptly leaving an empty
house for many years. In the basement he discovers 'something' that he
can look at- and through at the same time. He survives the brutal
encounter with Flana and while recouping in a bar he debates if it has gone
after his Aunt Helen and if he can go back to face it again.

What is Love
Letters and Other Passages of Darknessabout?

"Love Letters and Other Passages of Darkness" is
a collection of stories that finds each character confronted with a dark
passage, one they must physically traverse or mentally confront. The landscape
is diversified; from a futuristic wasteland to a medieval castle, from an
abandoned attic to a downtown shopping mall, from a magical forest to an old
fashioned haunted house, with plenty of side trips along the way. You
could call it horror but I prefer dark drama; scary dark.

Do you think this page gives our readers an
accurate sense of whatthe collectionis about? Does it align itself
the collections’s overall theme?

I feel the excerpt is a microcosm of the story and the
whole book. You've got intrigue, a little bit of danger, some
interesting character development and just a sampling of one of the
dark passages that all the protagonists in the book must go through
whether they want to or not. I especially like the novelty of the first
paragraph with Richie tossing his could/couldn't ideas back and forth.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

PAGE 69

LOVE LETTERS AND OTHER PASSAGES OF DARKNESS

I couldn’t go back. I couldn’t face Flana again. I almost didn’t
survive the first meeting and in my current state of pain there was no way I
wanted to tussle with it again. I couldn’t. I could call the
police. I couldn’t tell them why they needed to go there. I could
report it anonymously. ‘There’s an old women who’s fallen and can’t get
up. You’d better go check on her.’

I was confused and my psyche had been taxed to its limit already.
Perplexed, I gravitated to the bar instinctively. Jimmy poured me a glass
of Coors Light without me asking. He must have seen the way I looked and
thought I really needed one badly.

“What the hell happened to you Richie?”

I
held up my palm and shook my head. Jimmy was a great bartender. He
would sit and listen to your problems all night long, letting you vent all your
frustrations and nod sympathetically, or he would toss out liquor-inspired
pearls of wisdom to all sorts of dilemmas that would rival the advice of any
$325 an hour psychologist. He also knew when to shut up and leave you
alone and let you drink. Without a word he filled a bar towel with ice,
slammed it on the counter a few times to break it up and placed it on my eye
for me to hold and went to tend other customers. Thank the god of small
favors for Jimmy.

Back to Aunt Helen. What was I to do? If I called the
police, they would go there and find her contorted, lifeless body in a
ransacked room and assume it was a robbery. But when they
investigated they would discover that I was the last person to see her and I
would have no alibi and no feasible explanation for what had happened.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

R. J. Erbacher has been writing for over forty years,
mostly for his own satisfaction. He wrote, edited and published “Warrior Poets:
The Magazine of Medieval Poetry” in the mid 90’s. His first book “Coffee
and Fate” was published in 2010 in limited release and was adorned with
unanimous book blogger praise. His new novel “Love Letters and other
Passages of Darkness” is a collection of Dark Drama Short Stories. He
lives in Long Island, New York with his wife of 33 years and three
daughters. Someday he hopes to be a real writer.

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Who's That Girl?

I have been buried beneath small press and self-published review copies since 2009. My passion for supporting the small press and self publishing communities has driven me out into the world wide web to demonstrate alternative ways to spread the word about amazing publishers, authors, and novels you might never had heard of. Feeding your reading addiction, one book at a time.